Gaza protests, a Wall of Sound around Horfield Prison, 21st March 2009

bristol | peace | news report

Monday March 23, 2009 13:25

by Tony

Protestors support EDO Disarmers, imprisoned for damage to Israel's Gaza massacre machinery.

On Saturday 21st March about 60 people marched around Horfield Prison in Bristol in a "Wall of Sound" protest to show solidarity with those who tried to disable the Israeli war machine when Israel was in the process of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity.
These people who have been locked up in Horfield Prison since the 16th January 2009 were attempting to prevent atrocities from taking place.
The worldwide revulsion of the Gaza massacres shows that the whole world accuses Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity with the exception of the US and the UK.

Assembling on Gloucester Road near the Golden Lion pub, Wall of Sound, Horfield

The 23-day Gaza massacre of January 2009 is a fading memory, but to the people of Gaza it was yet another wave of Israeli aggression in a sixty plus year series of brutal attacks and they are still suffering from Israel's devastation of Gaza's civilian infrastructure. Police stations, UN buildings, schools, hospitals, universities, water, sewage, electricity, they were all fair game for Israel with her high precision guided weapons. As a result of the latest in the series (and it won't be the last) 1500 Palestinians have died and many more have been maimed, buried under their devastated homes, or burned by the inescapable torrent of white phosphorous that oh so civilised IsraHell rained down on them. So Israel takes one more step towards achieving her ambition of the total destruction of Palestine.

But almost as disturbing as the horrific injuries inflicted on Palestinian civilians by Israel is the silence that has ensued, the fact that we could observe this gross carnage of our fellow man without flinching indicates that our society has become seriously flawed.

It is a telling fact is that our once proud country, a country that claims to be an influence for good and democracy in the world, does nothing to influence Israel into curtailing such brutal activities.

Oh yes, there was the odd conciliatory comment, lip service from Gordon Brown, but any criticism of these obscene war crimes was promptly propagandised to Israel's advantage by that obnoxious Mark Regev, some sort of car-salesman spokesman for brutal Israel.

What kind of world are we creating for our children, where wars are promoted in order to use up ammunition in the butchery of live innocent human flesh? Is it acceptable we encourage the industrial consumption of arms and weaponry to wipe out swathes of sanction weakened humans in the Middle East and elsewhere? The more weapons sold, the better for the arms manufacture share prices, share prices that many of our services invest in, surely this is a wholly immoral concept.

But add one more factor, the corruption of those in the higher echelons of power, and the mix becomes even more virulent.

We see Members of Parliament ripping us off left right and centre by dodgily subsidising second homes and illegally employing their whole families at the expense of taxpayers. We see bankers stripping us of our savings while creaming off for themselves such large bonuses and pensions that the figures are almost beyond human comprehension. The spectre of our chosen representatives frantically gorging themselves at the trough before the money runs out, and all the while the population is being fleeced, does smack somewhat of "Let them eat cake" - and we know what happened after that.

It is true, there are some genuine good people in our government, Diane Abbot and Jeremy Corbyn come to mind and others like them, and in the House of Lords there is Baroness Jenny Tonge amongst others. But the corrupting USA /Israeli voice which also subverts our media has become such a powerful weapon in the arsenal of the "pigs at the trough", that sadly those principled voices for a return to morality and justice are mostly drowned out.

So what are we left with now?

Not only do we appear to have lost any financial security for the future, we have also prostituted our values of justice and morality by lining up behind lying warmonger Blair and that whole shower in Parliament who landed us in this mess by supporting him in his disastrous Middle East adventures. And because of our illegal invasions and occupation, there are millions of the planet's citizens whose loved ones have died at our hands, their lives their homes their property destroyed. The numbers involved dictate that there must be a proportion of people who have been so disturbed and radicalised by our invasions that attacks on mainland UK are highly probable.

So a whole new raft of laws was cobbled together under the guise of anti-terror measures. 'Under the guise of', because these anti-terror measures have mostly been used against our own citizens who dare to criticise the way that everything has turned into a dog's breakfast. Be very careful when protesting that you watch your P's and Q's, follow like sheep, do what you're told and don't make any sudden movements, because now the authorities have been issued with tazers to stop you in your tracks and you risk physical injury or worse. And if you are caught trying to photograph such brutality for evidence, well they've thought of that as well, now you risk ten years inside for taking a picture of a British Bobby.

Lied into illegal wars. Savings and pensions down the tubes. A once simple straightforward justice system that was the envy of the world, now so cluttered with a mishmash of anti-terror regs that it is regarded with disdain. A fine justice system that has morphed into a protection racket for the privileged few with little regard for ordinary folk, so what are we left with?

All we are left with is anger. And when we see these atrocious massacres being repeatedly committed on ordinary folk just like us in Palestine, massacres that are tacitly condoned if not encouraged by "Friends of Israel" in our government, we get very angry indeed. Having tried all other avenues some people see direct action as a last resort to retaining some semblance of morality and justice.

The brutal massacres of Gaza that began on the 27th of December 2008 and lasted until the 21st January 2009 were the last straw. The sight of white phosphorous raining down on schools convinced us of the rock bottom moral standing of an Israel that inflicts such unforgivable suffering on her captives in the Gaza strip. And their only sin? To happen to be born in Palestine, a region that Britain gave to Israel in 1917. You don't need to be a lawyer to appreciate the gross injustice of this occupation.

As the bombs and white phosphorous rained down on Gaza, disgust and anger at such butchery broke in a worldwide tsunami of protests against Israel, and some people found it impossible to just stand by and do nothing. So on January 16th 2009 some people broke into the EDO MBM ITT complex and disarmed the factory that was making vital components for the Paveways bombs and the bomb release mechanisms for the F15’s and F16’s, the aircraft used by Israel in the commission of their massacres.

Robert Alford and Elijah James Smith have been locked up without trial ever since then.

On Saturday 21st March about 70 people marched around Horfield Prison in Bristol in a "Wall of Sound" protest to show solidarity with those who tried to disable the Israeli war machine when Israel was in the process of committing war crimes and crimes against humanity. These people who have been locked up in Horfield Prison since the 16th January 2009 were attempting to prevent atrocities from taking place. The worldwide revulsion of the Gaza massacres shows that the whole world accuses Israel of war crimes and crimes against humanity with the exception of the US and the UK.

They have got the wrong people locked up, it is the authors of the latest massacres of Gaza, and their accomplices in the USA and UK who should be on remand, at the Hague.

It is high time that the UK observed and supported International Law.

Footnotes:-
1) The protest was very noisy, relations with the police for the most part were very good natured and tazers were not used.

2) We hope that our friends inside Horfield Prison could hear the din we enthusiastically made in their support, we hope that they gained some reassurance from our noise of solidarity telling them that they are not alone, that universal disgust against Israeli racial aggression is growing day by day.